Disturbing footage showing a Russian soldier being humiliated and beaten by a commander after allegedly abandoning his post has highlighted the cruelty of Putin’s army.
The unverified video, shared on social media, shows the soldier crouching in what appears to be a dugout while wearing a red floral dress.
A man standing over him repeatedly strikes him with what appears to be a sex toy, while accusing him of desertion.
Referring to the soldier as “our little girl”, the commander asks why he ran from his position before hitting him several times.
The soldier can be seen cowering in the corner and shielding his head with his hands as he claims he had been wounded.
“I got shot,” he says.
When asked where, the soldier replies: “In the hand.”
But the commander brutally dismisses the injury as “a scratch” before threatening to send him on an assault mission the following day.
He tells the soldier he will be sent into the so-called “meat grinder” – a term used to describe deadly frontline assaults in Ukraine where troops are reportedly sent forward in high-casualty attacks.
The footage has not been independently verified, and it is unclear when or where it was filmed.
It comes amid a series of videos circulating online which appear to show Russian troops being punished by their own commanders for allegedly refusing orders or attempting to leave their positions.
In one separate clip shared in recent months, two soldiers were allegedly beaten after reportedly threatening to complain about being sent on assault missions.
Another video appeared to show a serviceman suspended upside down from a tree, wrapped in cling film, as fellow soldiers looked on.
Russia’s military has faced repeated allegations of brutal internal discipline since Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Another shocking video shows a Russian serviceman tied up and left in a snow-filled pit while an off-camera commander screams abuse at him.
The soldier can be heard pleading for mercy as he is threatened with further punishment and humiliation.
In the clip, the commander accuses the man of drinking and avoiding frontline combat, shouting that others are “suffering at the front” while he “sat in the rear doing nothing”.
The soldier is repeatedly insulted, told to “shut up”, and warned that he will “die in this pit”.
At one point, the commander threatens to urinate on him.
The punishment escalates when the commander says the soldier will be forced to “run with TMs”, a reference to TM-62 anti-tank mines.
